Obligatory Google Reader post
Posted in Technology and software on March 15th, 2013This post contains nothing of import.
Like many other library folk, I use Google Reader–in my case, not as a news source, but to keep up with liblogs (and a few dozen other blogs).
Like many others, I was saddened by Google’s announcement that, as with other Google services that don’t seem to bring enough $$$revenue$$$, it’s killing Google Reader. Hey, at least Google gave 3.5 months warning.
I’ve read lots of posts about the shutdown and alternatives. Several seem to have good advice. A special partial-hand salute to those who say “You shouldn’t use RSS anyway, social media are all you need.” Works for them: Fine. Telling me that if it doesn’t work for me, it’s my fault: Not so fine. Personal preferences matter.
Free services tend to go away. I know that. You should remember that. (Public libraries aren’t free: They’re community-funded on a prepaid basis.)
I don’t really have more to say that hasn’t been covered to death by others.
My own experience in getting out while the getting is good:
- Restored my Bloglines account. And waited. And waited. And… Removed Bloglines from my Favorites list.
- Tried Feedly this morning. I think that’s going to be workable; they sure have made from-Greader migration easy. We shall see. (I’m a Firefox user, and I think that helps.)
- Haven’t tried The Old Reader because of other stories about the backlog. If Feedly turns out to be annoying, maybe I’ll try it later.
No great thoughts here.
Circulation per capita plotted against spending per capita
Circulation per capita (rounded) occurrence by spending category
